I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Weekend Linkee-poo, but it's Saturday night, I can't sleep and we're watching the news

Spent the day working outside. My yard is full of mushrooms and wooly bears. The mushrooms are diverse from patches of toadstools to clumps of puffballs to indian paintbrush and everything from death pallor white to deep purple and orange. The wooly bears are crawling everywhere this year. There's at least a hundred I uncovered out there. This year their stripes looked to be equally balanced (the black ends together are about as long as the red middles). But on the good news, I have mushrooms and woolybears in my yard. When I moved in the soil was way to poor for mushrooms, and I only had slugs in the yard. Now I've got real worms plowing in the soil, healthy loam a few inches down, and what was almost a fairy ring of toadstools. I really credit Bette for making this all happen. And it happened without replacing all the dirt in the yard. We added some, but mostly as our flower beds. So, yeah!

Always wanted to try Scrivener and, like myself, are a cheap bastard? Well, with NaNoWriMo coming up, Literature and Latte, the people behind Scrivener, are offering an extended trial and 50% off if you win NaNoWriMo and 20% off to everybody else. Just in case you wanted to know.

And speaking an NaNo, some tips on preparing yourself so you'll avoid some the traps waiting for you. And some plotting tips.

An Episcopal Bishop explains how the Church invented Hell and some other doctrinal issues to keep the worshipers in line. As I remember, Hell is not in the Bible itself. Now, one Bishop's thoughts do not a whole church make, but somewhat mirroring much of what I've learned over the years. Of interest to the current WIP. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

How can graphic designers make more money? "Since more employers are requesting hybrid candidates—those with creative and technical skills—it’s important for these individuals to round out their skill sets." That's a quote from a director at the Creative Group, which is one of the two major professional staffing firms in the US for design. To which I say, no fucking shit. Been that way my whole damn career (23 years now). When I get in the door people respond really well. But even just 7 years ago the Creative Group had trouble placing me because I do have that rounded out skill set (pegged their software competency tests, not very hard, at least to me). The problem is most hiring managers don't see someone who is 46 as having all the "technical" stuff together, because they didn't.

Why yes, the fall colors are normally peaking later in the year. Although this is a strange year. I have trees that are almost barren, but also trees that haven't started changing yet. Over all I think NE Ohio is at it's peak this week. I was able to commute home in the waining daylight two times this week and the colors look marvelous. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Even Bloomberg isn't buying Romney's tax plan and budget. And out of those "six studies" Romney keeps touting, I guess four of them are either op-ed pieces or blog posts. Not exactly a study. That link takes apart each of the six and points to their critical failures."Finally, I would note one item that the Romney campaign does not cite in support of its tax plan: Any analysis actually prepared for the campaign in preparation for announcing the plan in February. You would expect that, in advance of announcing a tax plan, the campaign would commission an analysis…Why don't they release that analysis? My guess is because the analysis doesn't exist, and the 20 percent rate cut figure was plucked out of thin air for political reasons without regard to whether it was feasible." More unobtainium, please. (Grokked from Ferrett Steinmetz)

And Paul Ryan was for the pork spending before he had to be against it. And while it's true that every congressman should try and get as much for his constituents as possible (sorry people who spent money on the project before they actually got the grant, but thems the rules, having deal with it myself, no sympathy). But then you don't get to rail against the spending. Unless you're a weasel. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Tweet of my heart: @neilhimself: .@fablor & I just bottled another 40lb of honey, & I rendered another 5lb of Beeswax. Now off into the mist to kill nice people in stories.

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